Tag Archives: screamcore

I checked out Winterfest last night. It was put on by Banzai Magazine, which would be the first time I’ve heard of them. The GF grew up with the folks in Zenith Farm so that’s why I was there. The Uptown somehow housed 4 stages inside and I have to say it was a very interesting experience. Some bands rocked, some bands really sucked. All in all it was worth the 10 bucks I dropped for it.

Walking inside, the familiar sights of the Uptown Theater befell my new spectacles (it borders on black frame, indie geekness but I tread the line slowly). The merch is always up front and the bar usually has some kind of music rocking. We surveyed the land, both far bar reception area, and near bar side room swankiness. The Winterfest spread it snowy wings across 4 separate stages. Needless to say, this Yeti like music fan was quite impressed.

The talent on the stage, however, wasn’t so impressive. Reading a line up and not knowing any single act is a great indicator for the level of greatness represented. I only recognized one band: Zenith Farm. To be fair, I spied them at the Record Bar a couple of months ago and am very familiar to their comedy/country brand of bluegrass and blue balls. Thank you again, GF. If you want a great show and a great laugh, check them out. The Ustream tells some of the story.

The rest of the bands were lukewarm to weak. Hey, that’s cool, we got quantity over quality for some very cheap tickets. High (or low) lights include a guy alone on one stage singing through karaoke versions of Tool songs. The hip hop area had some good stuff, but other stuff was majorly week. A Nickelback-esque like sighting almost made me puke. The metal was truly represented with enough death metal and screamcore to deafen even the oldest of music fans.

Speaking of which, I really enjoyed the Hand of Midas. They were straightforward heavy metal dudes that had a nice tight set on the main stage. The lead singer also looked like a friend of mine, Old Dude. When I was jamming out to them, I couldn’t help but think of heavy metal gods like Pantera and Kyuss. They lead singer needs to grow his hair out a little more for some better headbangitute. At any rate, check this guys out and prepare to have your asses blown off.

Winterfest didn’t blow us off. Whether the acts were great or not, the one truly special quality of this event was the mix of different music genres. Before the concert kicked off, I predicted heavy metal down the line. I didn’t guess that the whole show would be a mish-mash of different music types (except Techno, guys get it on there for next year). Even better, the type of people who enjoyed the different types genres were intermixed. Toothless, old, grizzled rednecks rocking out to some pregnant, high heeled, short skirt hoochie mama is a magical sight to see.